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Added by Nicolette, last edited by Nicolette on Mar 15, 2006  (view change)
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IBM Standalone Diagnostics

The IBM Standalone Diagnostics CD-ROM provides hardware diagnostics and service-related utilities for POWER, PowerPC, eServer i5 system with common pSeries I/O, and RS/6000-based systems. The standalone diagnostics CD-ROM would be used in the following situations when it makes sense to test the hardware independent of the operating system:

  • When there is no operating system installed on a system or partition
  • When the operating system does not have support for the service related function you wish to perform
  • When there may be a problem with the boot device
  • When the service documentation specifically recommends running standalone diagnostics

The actual IBM Standalone Diagnostic CD-ROM can be downloaded at the following web page:
http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload/diags

Diagnostics, which are available for AIX® and Linux® systems and logical partitions, can help you perform hardware analysis. If a problem is found, you will receive a service request number (SRN) or a service reference code (SRC) that can help pinpoint the problem and determine a corrective action.

Additionally, there are various service aids in the diagnostics that can help you with service tasks on the system or logical partition.

You can run the IBM Standalone Diagnostic the following ways:

  • Running the eServer stand-alone diagnostics from CD-ROM
  • Running the eServer stand-alone diagnostics from a Network Installation Management server

Running the stand-alone diagnostics from CD-ROM on a server with an HMC attached

Use this procedure to run the stand-alone diagnostics on a system with an HMC attached. If you have logical partitions, note the following considerations:

  • When running diagnostics in a logically partitioned system, you must run diagnostics in the logical partition containing the resource or resources that you want to test.
  • The device from which you are loading stand-alone diagnostics must be made available to the logical partition on which you want to run diagnostics. This might require moving the device (for example, the optical drive or network adapter connected to the Network Installation Management (NIM) server that has a stand-alone diagnostic image) from the logical partition that currently contains the device to the logical partition on which you want to run diagnostics.

Perform the following steps from the HMC to run stand-alone diagnostics:

Note: If you need help with any of these steps, contact your system operator.

  1. Remove all tapes, diskettes, and optical media, and put the diagnostic CD-ROM into the optical media drive in the managed system (not the optical media drive in the HMC).
  2. Shut down the operating system from the HMC by performing the following steps:
    1. In the navigation area, select Server and partition > Server Management.
    2. In the contents pane, expand the server that contains the partition you want to test.
    3. Right-click the partition and select Open Terminal Window.
    4. In the VTerm window, login as root user and enter any requested passwords.
    5. Shut down the operating system using one of the following commands:
      • If AIX is running, type the shutdown -F command.
      • If Linux is running, type the shutdown -h now command
    6. Close the VTerm window.
  3. From the HMC, right-click the partition and select Activate. Ensure the Open a terminal window or console session box is selected and click OK.
  4. Continue with the Selecting options for stand-alone diagnostics procedure.

Running the stand-alone diagnostics from CD-ROM on a system without an HMC attached

To run eServer stand-alone diagnostics, perform the following steps:

  1. Choose from the following options:
    1. If the system is powered on, perform the following steps:
      1. Let the system administrator and system users know that the system unit will be shut down.
      2. Stop all programs including the operating system. See Start or stop the system for details.
    2. If the system is powered off, you will need to start it in order to put the diagnostic CD-ROM in the optical media drive.
  2. Put the diagnostic CD-ROM in the optical media drive.
  3. Re-start the server.
  4. Continue with the Selecting options for stand-alone diagnostics procedure.

Using IBM eServer stand-alone diagnostics service aids to setup HW RAID

After you've loaded the IBM eServer stand-alone diagnostics, you can use the included PCI-X SCSI Disk Array service aid to configure and setup hardware RAID.

Note: The loading of the IBM eServer stand-alone diagnostic takes some time!

First select the language.

<Picture Diags screen1>

Now select the correct terminal emulation. VT100 should be appropriate.

<Picture Diags screen2 - Terminal>

At this point scroll down the list, using the arrow-down button, until you reach the entry PCI-X SCSI Disk Array and press Enter.

<Picture Diags screen3 - Selection>

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